A Short History of Wethersfield

Joshua Horowitz

Due 11/12/14

I believe Wethersfield is an interesting town because of its history.

Wethersfeld arguably holds the claim of being the oldest town in Connecticut,

depending on if you consider the trading post now known as Windsor to have

been a town before Wethersfield was founded.

A total of four witch trials were held in the town of Wethersfield in the

seventeenth century. Three victims were executed, and the final one was

banished, and her property was seized.

Wethersfield has one of the oldest charted fire departments in the

United States, and the oldest one in Connecticut, although for almost a

century Wethersfield was known mostly for the onions grown and sold there,

and to many outsiders Wethersfield was simply known as Oniontown.

Perhaps one of the things that I consider to be the most interesting to

happen in the past fifty years is the amazing coincidence of the two

meteorites that have crashed in the town in 1982 and 1971, respectively. The

meteorite that crashed during the 70s was sold to the Smithsonian, and the

one landed in the 80s is being housed at the Yale Peabody Museum in New

Haven.

In short, those are the things that I consider to be most noteworthy

about the town of Wethersfield. I hope you have enjoyed my brief summary of

the stranger things to happen in a small town that’s been around for some

three hundred and eighty years.